How Google Book Search Will Serve Users if Approved

by Clint Boulton

The landing page for the Google Book Search deal lists the changes coming to the Google Books service.

Readers can search Google’s Books database for over 7 million books.

Today, books searchable on Google come from its Library Project, whose works are out of copyright but available in full on Google, and from 20,000 publishers in Google’s partner program. However, only preview pages are available for these works.

Google Books will let users preview, read and purchase digital copies of millions of out-of-print works from publishers.

Users will be able to access the books online by accessing a Google Books Search account. Libraries and universities will be able to purchase subscriptions, for students and researchers to access via an electronic library.

Google explains the differences between in-copyright and in-print books, in-copyright but out-of-print books, and out-of-copyright books.

The Books Rights Registry doles up sales of digital books Google sells, with 63 percent split among authors and publishers and 37 percent going to Google.

As part of the Google Book Search settlement, books rights holders can claim their Books and Inserts in a easy way here.

There are more than 400 opponents lashing out against GBS. This site hosts statements from some of the GBS supporters.

This is how the Google Books site looks today. Google continues to revise the site, adding numerous features to improve the user experience. For example, users can create custom bookshelves to organize, review, rate, and search a customized selection of books.